Environmental Protection ─ What Everyone Needs to Know

In 1962, Rachel Carson's Silent Spring sounded an alarm: the natural environment is being dangerously degraded because of human activity. Ever since, environmental protection has been a major societal concern. A robust system of environmental laws has emerged in the United States, commercial activities are increasingly scrutinized for their environmental impact, and communities around the world are becoming aware of the environment as a global issue requiring international attention. The most important evidence comes from the environment itself: the planet is warming, water supplies are at risk, ecosystems are under stress, and species are being lost at an unprecedented rate.

Environmental Protection: What Everyone Needs to Know® provides accessible information that will help readers navigate this complex and highly relevant subject. It gives background information on the origins and development of environmental protection; introductions to the main elements of environmental protection with concrete examples; the context for understanding current issues; definitions of key terms; scientific, legal, and economic underpinnings; and discussion of hot-button current issues from nanopollution to climate change. The reader will gain familiarity with phenomena like biodiversity, the greenhouse effect, fugitive emissions, and algal blooms while learning about the impact of landmark policy initiatives like the Clean Air Act, the Endangered Species Act, the Kyoto Protocol, and the Paris Agreement.

Pamela Hill is an environmental lawyer and former Deputy Regional Counsel at the United States Environmental Protection Agency's New England Regional Office, with extensive experience as a career senior attorney at the USEPA. She is a lecturer in environmental law at Boston University School of Law and has also taught environmental law at Northeastern University School of Law.